Adrenaline pumped through Jerrica’s body, and she reached over Gray’s shoulder for the release button to unlock the door.
Before she got midway there, Gray snatched her hand. “Wait.”
“Wait for what?” She clutched at the slipping towel with her other hand. “Can’t you see him? He’s been beaten. He needs our help.”
“We don’t know what they’ve done to him, Jerrica. It might be a trick. They probably followed him.” Gray’s jaw hardened and she recognized the look.
She dug her heels into the floor as her fist curled around the terry cloth under her arms, holding the towel in place. “What does it matter? They already know where I live. They’ve been inside, planted bugs.”
“They might’ve armed him with something. Maybe he’s wearing a wire.”
She twisted her fingers in his grasp, which he tightened. “They already tried that, and we disrupted their plan. We’ll do it again, even if Amit is wired. He’s not going to turn on me, anyway.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know what they’re capable of doing to make people bend to their will.” A muscle twitched at the corner of Gray’s mouth, and the tension radiated off his body.
“I know my...friend’s in the street, battered and bloody, and he came to me for help—and you always called me the cold one.” Maybe she’d never considered Amit a friend before, but they were in this together now. She released the hold on her towel and slammed her thumb against the button to unlock the front door. She leaned toward the speaker. “Come up, Amit...and hurry.”
When she’d let go of the towel, it had fallen to her feet, and goosebumps raced across her naked body.
“Stubborn woman.” Gray swept her towel from the floor and bunched it against her midsection. “Stay here. The guy can’t even make it up the first flight of stairs by himself.”
She shook out the towel and twisted it around her body, securing a corner. “A-are you going to help him?”
“Yeah.” He leveled a finger at her, nearly touching it to her nose. “Watch the display and make sure nobody slips in behind him or tries to ambush us on our way up.”
She nodded as Gray gripped his weapon in front of him and lunged past her to the front door, his boxers hanging on his hips. He slammed the door behind him.
Jerrica’s nose stung as she watched Amit sag against the door. He’d been capable of just enough steps to get him inside the building, but he hadn’t moved since.
Her heart slammed against her chest as a dark figure moved into view. When she realized it was Gray, she gulped in some air to steady her breathing.
Amit had Gray by a few inches in height, but Gray had the muscle and he used it to good effect as he hitched Amit’s arm around his shoulders and wrapped his own arm around Amit’s body. He half-dragged, half-carried Amit toward the stairs.
Jerrica’s eyes burned as she watched the display for any unusual movement behind them or further attempts to breach the front door. When she heard their thumping and bumbling footsteps in the hallway, she peeled her gaze away from the monitor and clawed at the locks on her door.
She swung it wide and gasped as Gray dragged an unconscious Amit into her apartment. “What happened? Why did he pass out? Is he still alive?”
“He’s alive. He lost some blood.” He settled Amit onto the floor. “Get some towels—wet and dry. Ice. Whiskey.”
Jerrica scurried to the closet in the downstairs bathroom and snatched several hand towels from the shelf. She filled her arms with some first aid supplies and dumped everything next to Gray, crouching beside Amit. Then she bunched one of the towels in her hand and made for the kitchen where she left it under the faucet as she filled a plastic bag with ice and grabbed a bottle of tequila from the cupboard above the fridge.
She dropped to the floor next to Gray, his fingers resting against Amit’s pulse, and dabbed his facial wounds with the damp towel. As she wiped away the blood, she blew out a breath.
“It looks worse than it is.”
“Stanch the blood flow from the back of his head. That’s the deepest cut, the one that’s bleeding the most.” Gray raised Amit’s eyelids with his thumb. “We could take him to the emergency room.”
“No.” Jerrica pressed a dry towel against the wound on Amit’s head and unbuttoned his shirt with trembling fingers. “That would bring cops and questions. Dreadworm has strict protocol about that. Amit knows.”
“If he doesn’t respond soon, we have no choice. I’m not going to sit here and watch someone die. What’s Dreadworm’s protocol on that?”
She ran her hands across Amit’s chest and around his back. “No wires. He’s not hooked up.”
Gray raised an eyebrow. “Any wounds on his body?”
“None of those, either.” Heat suffused her cheeks. “You’re the one who warned me about wires.”
“Relax. I know.” He traced some red spots splotched across Amit’s chest and abdomen. “Looks like he took a beating to the midsection.”
“At least they used fists instead of knives.” She replaced the cloth at the back of Amit’s head.
“Check his pockets, too.” Gray picked up the bottle of booze. “Tequila?”
“I don’t drink whiskey. That tequila is the closest thing I have. If you want to clean his wounds, I have antiseptic for that.” She shoved one of her hands in the front pocket of Amit’s jeans.
“I wanted to try to give him a sip to see if it revives him. Tequila might work.” He unscrewed the lid from the bottle and tipped it toward Amit’s lips. The clear liquid ran down the side of his face to his neck. “Guess not.”
Jerrica dumped the coins she’d dug out of Amit’s pocket onto the floor and searched the other one. She held up a scrap of paper. “Just an old receipt.”
“Check his back pockets for a wallet.” Gray hoisted Amit into a sitting position, placing his back against the foot of the couch. “I’m going to try to wake him up.”
Reaching beneath his body, Jerrica patted Amit’s back pockets. “Nothing.”
“Amit! Wake up.” Gray took Amit’s jaw between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed as he shook his head back and forth. “Wake up.”
“More tequila?” Jerrica doused the corner of a towel with the alcohol and squeezed a few drops into his mouth while Gray pinched it open.
Amit’s dark lashes fluttered, and Jerrica patted him on the cheek. “Amit! It’s Jerrica.”
He groaned and turned his head to the side to escape Gray’s fierce grip.
“Lighten up.” She circled her fingers around Gray’s wrist. “He’s bruised enough.”
“I want him conscious.” Gray grabbed the bag of ice and applied it to the side of Amit’s head.
Amit’s eyes flew open and he gasped, as if sucking in air after a near drowning. His eyeballs rolled back in his head for a second and then he focused on her face. “Jerrica?”
“Thank God.” She grabbed one of his thin hands and chafed it between her own, even though he wasn’t cold in the least. “What do you need?”
Amit sucked in a breath and squeezed his eyes closed. “Everything hurts. Where am I?”
“You’re at my place.” She exchanged a quick look with Gray. “Do you remember coming here?”
“Yeah.” His hazy gaze wandered to Gray. “Who...?”
“He’s a friend. He’s going to help us. Can you tell me what happened tonight? When we got to the coffeehouse, you were gone.”
Amit’s head dropped back against the sofa, as he clutched his middle.
“Let’s help him onto the bed.” Gray rose to his haunches and curled an arm beneath Amit. “Can you get up?”
Amit staggered to his feet with Gray’s help, and walked on wobbly legs to the bedroom. “Kelly. I have to call Kelly.”
“We’ll make sure she knows you’re okay.” Jerrica squeezed past the two men into the spare bedroom where the covers were still turned down after Gray’s quick exit from the bed. She bunched the pillows against the headboard and patted the mattress. “Put him here.”
Gray eased Amit’s broken body to the bed and propped him up. “Try to stay alert for a while. We’ll get you cleaned up and tend to your wounds. Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“No!” Amit winced with the effort of his yell. “No hospitals. No police.”
“Then you’d better not die on us.” Gray turned from the bed and left the room.
Jerrica unbuttoned the rest of Amit’s shirt and peeled it from his shoulders. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Like I told you on the phone, I was being followed. I sent Kelly home with friends because I didn’t want either of us to be followed to our place. I ducked into the coffeehouse because I thought I’d be safe in a crowd.” He closed his eyes. “I was wrong.”
“Did they strong-arm you out of the coffeehouse?” Gray had returned to the bedroom, carrying the first aid supplies.
Amit opened one eye and assessed Gray. “Is he...?”
“He’s safe.”
“I meant, is he the Navy SEAL?”
Gray cleared his throat. “Delta Force. What happened in the coffeehouse?”
“Ouch.” Amit jerked his head back as Jerrica pressed the ice pack against his temple. “Some guy followed me in there with a knife.”
“I wonder if he’s the same guy who attacked you in the alley, Jerrica. He must’ve figured you’d come after Amit at the coffeehouse.” Gray sat on the edge of the bed and shook a bottle of ibuprofen in the air. “Take a few of these. You’ll need them for those ribs.”
Amit’s eyes widened as much as they could. “Someone attacked you, too?”
“We went out to the coffee place, and I received a text from you. I went out to the alley to meet you and was met by a guy with a knife instead.”
“They took my phone.” Amit popped the pills and chased them down with a slug of tequila. “You actually went into the alley to meet someone? You?”
“That’s what I said.” Gray flicked a strand of Jerrica’s hair.
“Not the smartest move, but I guess I was desperate to find you, Amit.” She brushed her hand across her cheek and the growing warmth there.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t tell them anything. I didn’t lead them to Dreadworm.”
Jerrica folded her arms over her stomach. She probably deserved that. Of course, Amit would think she’d be more worried about Dreadworm than his safety. He’d be wrong. She’d learned a thing or two after Gray dumped her. Had learned she could hurt people as much as they’d hurt her. She hadn’t liked the realization.
Gray lifted one eyebrow. “How’d you get away from them? Did they let you go in exchange for leading them to more Dreadworm hackers? Leading them to Jerrica?”
“Hey, no.” Amit made a grab for the bloody towel against the back of his head as it slipped to his shoulder. “They didn’t let me go. A cop saved me.”
“You went to the police? You just said no police.” Jerrica pursed her lips.
Tapping his bruised forehead, Amit said, “You’re not thinking very clearly, Jerrica, which is a first for you. After the guy roughed me up in the alley, he started marching me at knifepoint out to the street to what I guessed was a waiting car and more torture in my future. Luckily, there was a group of unruly drunks on the sidewalk that had caught the attention of two cops. I broke away from my captor a few feet in front of the cop and fell onto the sidewalk. The guy with the knife disappeared into the crowd, taking my wallet and cell with him.”
“What did you tell the officer?” Jerrica placed a hand against her chest, trying to tame her galloping heart.
“Told him I’d had an altercation of a personal nature in the alley and didn’t want to make a report or press charges.” Amit raised one shoulder. “He was only too happy to let it go. I would never lead them here, Jerrica.”
“They made it here, anyway.” She swept a hand through the air. “In fact, they may be listening to everything we’ve been saying.”
“They broke into your place?” Amit’s gaze darted around the room. “What do you mean, listening to us?”
Gray pushed off the foot of the bed and took a turn around the room. “When we got back here, Jerrica insisted someone had broken in. Nothing was missing and she couldn’t detect any activity on her computer, though. They wouldn’t break in and leave with nothing, so I swept the place for listening devices. We found several and dispatched them. We were just turning in until...”
“Until I showed up and ruined the party.” Amit glanced at Jerrica and his gaze dropped to the towel still wrapped around her body. “Aren’t you cold?”
“Freezing.” She rubbed her bare arms.
As if noticing his own state of undress for the first time, Gray yanked his shirt off the top of the dresser and pulled it on. “Go upstairs and put on some pajamas. I’ll finish dressing Amit’s wounds.”
As Jerrica backed out of the room, she said, “Don’t get to any of the good stuff without me.”
Upstairs in the loft, Jerrica let the towel fall to her feet. She slipped into a pair of pajama bottoms and a matching top, pulling it over her head with her hands still trembling.
Both she and Amit had been attacked in one night, but their attackers hadn’t gotten what they wanted...not yet. She had a feeling they wouldn’t stop until they did.
She jogged downstairs and walked in on Gray and Amit talking about the attack. “What’s the verdict? Is he gonna live?”
“He took a beating, but he’ll be okay.” Gray stuffed the last of the bloody towels in a plastic garbage bag. “Some bruised ribs, a few cuts, and he’ll have a black eye for sure.”
“Why did he pass out?”
“In case you haven’t noticed I’m not a doctor, but I’m guessing blood loss and exhaustion. He did try to keep his abductors away from your place, so he was wandering around for a while and riding the subway.”
Amit touched the bandage on the back of his head. “For not being a doctor, you did a good job.”
“I’ve had some practice patching wounds.” Gray dropped the bag by the door. “Now, let’s figure out what these people want.”
Jerrica sat cross-legged on the foot of the bed. “The keepers of that shadow government database must’ve figured out that Dreadworm had compromised it.”
“But how do they know who we are? I’m a mild-mannered computer programmer by day. Kelly doesn’t even know what I do at night.” Amit waved his hand at Jerrica. “You’re an independent on-call computer nerd. How are they following us and breaking into our homes?”
Gray asked, “Who are the other Dreadworm people who work here?”
Amit held up two bony fingers. “Cedar and Kiera. I mean, there are others in other locations, but we’re the only four in the New York area and only Jerrica and I are in that particular office. Nobody else knows about that location—except Olaf. We don’t see much of Cedar or Kiera. If they have a location like we do, we don’t know where it is. Olaf tends to keep us separate.”
Jerrica said, “We need to send out an SOS to them. We’ve definitely been compromised. They could be in danger, too.”
“Unless they’re the ones who outed you.” Gray rubbed his chin. “Think about it. They did it or Olaf did it.”
“Wait.” Jerrica held up her hands. “Those are only the people we know of who know our identities. There could be others—you know I work for Dreadworm and you apparently told Major Denver because he knew. Who else knows? Where else is it circulating?”
“Guilty, but I know Denver didn’t ID you, and I sure as hell didn’t.”
“Did you tell your other Delta Force team members? You know how that goes. They tell someone innocent and they tell someone innocent, and eventually the intel gets to someone who’s not so innocent.”
Gray shot her a look of annoyance from beneath a set of scowling eyebrows. “Let’s start with the inner circle first.”
“For whatever it’s worth, the guy who was beating me up didn’t ask any specifics about Dreadworm. He warned me to stop meddling. Told me what we were doing was only helping the government.”
Jerrica sliced a hand through the air. “Dreadworm has never been about bringing down the government. It’s about making it better, more accountable to the people.”
“This guy seemed to think that would be a persuasive argument for me.” Amit stifled a yawn. “Did one of those happy pills contain codeine or something?”
“You needed it for the pain.” Gray nudged Jerrica in the back. “And now we all need some sleep. We can continue to untangle this in the morning.”
Amit shoved a pillow beneath his head. “Is it safe here? You said someone broke in.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle the security.”
“Kelly.” Amit’s lids drifted closed. “I need to tell Kelly.”
“Keep Kelly ignorant and safe for now, Amit. We’ll find some way to get word to her, and I’ll send out an alert to the others.” Jerrica shut off the light and pulled the door shut.
Kicked out of his bed, Gray veered toward the living room and the smallish sofa.
Jerrica grabbed his hand. “Don’t be an idiot. You can share my bed upstairs. I don’t bite...anymore.”
Gray chuckled, but a look of panic flashed across his face. Did the thought of being in bed with her make him think twice about his motive for being here?
“I don’t mind the sofa. I’ve slept on worse.”
“I’m sure you have, tough guy.” She placed her hands against his back and gave him a little shove up the stairs. “But you’re back in civilization now.”
His back and shoulders held military stiff, Gray trod up the stairs as if meeting a firing squad. Maybe she should’ve let him sleep on the couch.
In the loft, she flicked on the lamp where they’d found the bug and turned down the covers. “I did finally invest in a king-size bed, so there’s plenty of room for both of us.”
She slipped under the covers and turned off the light.
As he crawled into the bed as far away from her as he could possibly get without falling out, she cleared her throat. “I’m glad you showed up today, Gray. Both Amit and me would’ve been lost without you.”
Rolling onto this back, he pulled the covers up to his chin like a virgin on his wedding night and growled. “Like I said, I’ll take care of the security and you can do your hacking thing. We need to uncover this plot and exonerate Denver. At this point, I think you’re the only one who can do that.”
“Nice of you to think so, anyway.”
“Good night, Jerrica.”
“Good night, Gray.”
She slid a sideways glance at his profile in the darkness, noticing his wide-open eyes staring at the ceiling, his hands at his sides. Maybe he was just keeping alert for safety.
She had to know one way or the other. She wanted him. Needed the comfort of his body.
“Gray?” She stroked his corded forearm with her fingertips, and it was as if she’d brought a statue to life.